ABSK Grad Ministry

D. JDSN’s preached on attitudes today. The bible text was Esther 2:2-20. As a God’s person, Esther remained humble even after she became a queen of Persia. And from Genesis and new testaments, we can see that God’s attitude towards us is described as love. In the midst of persecution on the cross, Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” (Luke 23:34) Without love, that would not be possible. Today we all felt God’s love again by witnessing Maggie’s acceptance of Jesus as her Lord and Savior. He has always been working in our lives even when we didn’t know.

Attitude determines everything. It leads to actions that can touch so many people’s hearts. Let’s check our attitudes and become FAT -Faithful, Available, Teachable- christians.

Hope all of you had a great week. Some sisters started the week by joining Komen Race for the Cure last Sunday. It is a 5 kilometer run/wall to celebrate the breast cancer survivors and raise awareness for the fight against breast cancer. Nearly 26,000 people participated and $2.8 million were raised. I´m sure the money will be spent for good causes.

Today we had another bible study in PV lounge at 7:30 pm. I was excited since there was a new member joining in our bible study. It was Jennifer who used to be in our group. She was in a grad group as a staff for a while but now the grad group and ISM are combined so we get to see her every Friday. Hope more people join in our bible study next week.
There were a couple of announcements today. We used to have a snack first before the bible study but we decided to do the bible study first and then have a fellowship. I think it was good that way. After the bible study today, we had small talks and watched Angel´s baseball game for about an hour, still the night was young. Some discussed the possibility to go to the ARC after the bible study and have sports fellowship sometime. I think this new timing schedule will allow us to have more flexibility. Another announcement is about consolidation of the ISM and grad group. Soon I´ll make another website for our new group.

Regarding the bible study, we studied the same text as last week from different perspective. Last week, D. JDSN focused on the importance of God´s vision. This week, I think the focus is on the life of a christian. Genesis 15 captures the snapshop of christian experience. Although there´s a happy ending in the vision, suffering follows in a christian life. In the text, God promised that he would bring back the descendents in the fourth generation to the promised land. The previous generations could not see the promise was achieved. Without the belief in eternity, it would have been really tough to keep the faith in such a harsh situation.
But we need to know that God´s promise is a very serious one and he fulfills the promise. He is solid as a rock. That´s why we need to put our faith in Him than anything else. He is our great reward and great protector. Even in the time of suffering, if we believe in Him, we have a great hope because God fulfills all his promises.

A great bible study again today although I couldn´t delve in detail here like D. JDSN did for the group.
Have a good weekend!

Today, our ISM members and leaders all gathered at JH SMN and Daniel JDSN´s cozy place for our first bible study this quarter. Bibimbab was prepared for us by JH SMN and Karen unni. It was awesomely delicious, of course, and once again reminds me of great stories in the Gospels about sharing food and having fellowship with one another. After the dinner and small talks, under Daniel JDSN´s direction, we started reading today´s bible text Genesis 15:7-21. Usually we read the text and pick a key verse and title in a small group, share the ideas with other groups, and Daniel JDSN preaches. Our group picked the verse 18 as the key verse and the title is ´covenant in faith´.

18 On that day the LORD made a covenant with Abram and said, “To your descendants I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the Euphrates- 19 the land of the Kenites, Kenizzites, Kadmonites, 20 Hittites, Perizzites, Rephaites, 21 Amorites, Canaanites, Girgashites and Jebusites.”

In this chapter, God makes covenant with Abram promising him the land and numerous descendants. He says that there will be hardship in the lives of Abram´s descendants in the future, but promises that they will be able come back to the land God promised and free from the slavery.

It was very interesting chapter to study and I was really amazed by God´s committed love and patience for Abram and Abram´s faith in God. At this time, he and his wife Sarah are old to have a baby but Abram believed in God that He will make his numerous descents..
Our bible study finishes with Daniel JDSN´s prayer that wishes us make this year as the year that we learn the most, put our hope and trust in Him as for most of us this is our final year for graduate studies.

And we´ll be joining 2008 Race for Cure starting at Fashion Island on Sunday Morning.